Best Enemies

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Jane's 11th novel, Best Enemies, is the story of two former best friends who run into each other after a long estrangement. It's a very funny tale that proves there are two sides to every friendship...

Amy Sherman is doing just fine - nice apartment in Manhattan, good job as publicity director at a publisher, decent social life - until she runs into Tara Messer, the beautiful blonde prom queen who was once her best friend. It's been four years since Tara stole Stuart Lasher, Amy's fiance - four years since Amy swore she'd stop playing second fiddle to spotlight-hog Tara. But when Tara, who is now blissfully married to Stuart, asks whether she's dating anyone, Amy can't bear to admit there's no man in her life. Instead, she claims she's getting married in six months, figuring the lie will never come back to haunt her. The next day, Amy learns that her publishing house has just acquired Tara's lifestyle book. Now, she not only has to promote her nemesis to the media, she also has to dig up a temporary Mr. Right to show off in front of Tara and Stuart. In desperation, she turns to bestselling mystery writer Tony Stiles, who has no idea what he's in for. And in the course of playing a game of payback, Amy finds herself vulnerable to yet another betrayal. As hilarious as it is romantic, Best Enemies is a cautionary tale about trying to keep up appearances, even with the person who knows you best.

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Reviews

Houston Chronicle

May 14, 2004
By Martha Liebrum

Jane Heller polishes Chick Lit formula

IF you are a reader of Chick Lit, you know what it is. It comes in books by Helen Fielding (Bridget Jones's Diary) or Candace Bushnell (Sex and the City) or Plum Sykes (Bergdorf Blondes).

And now comes the less heralded but extremely successful Jane Heller, who is the Stephen King of Chick Lit and exults on her Web site JaneHeller.com, "Another spring, another new book!"

In case you are not so familiar with Chick Lit, we will go down the checklist for same:

I did not make up these criteria, mind you, they were prepared by a correspondent for National Public Radio who in April discussed Chick Lit and the much tinier subspecies Lad Lit. Heller's Best Enemies meets all the criteria for this currently very hot-selling form of fiction, and you should definitely add it to your carryall this summer when you head for the beach.

Do not think this will insult Heller. On her Web site she announces her joy at having one of her books included among 150 in a contest promotion called "Get Caught Reading at Sea," which honors the "joys of reading by the pool." Heller's site says, "The six-month campaign will culminate in a seven-day cruise on the Carnival Elation, October 17-24, during which authors and readers will sail out of Galveston, Texas, to the Western Caribbean." (This may confirm what was recently suggested by an anti-Chick Lit reviewer who said haughtily that actual Chick Lit sells best in America's "flyover regions.")

While NPR credits Fielding with being the godmother of Chick Lit, I must insist that Heller get her due. A former book publicist, Heller figured out the magic formula and has produced a novel a year since Cha Cha Cha in 1994. Best Enemies is her 11th, and she already has her 12th ready for next year.

Three of her previous books have been optioned for movies, and a fourth has a TV deal. Heller invites her fans to participate in cybercasting the upcoming movies. So ... hmmmm ... who would play the two leads in Best Enemies?

In this outing we have a spunky brunette book publicist named Amy Sherman who has lived in the shadow of her former best friend Tara Messer, a tall, gorgeous blonde. They were very tight until Amy found Tara in bed with her fiance, the feckless Stuart. The friendship is so over. Tara marries Stuart because he's handsome and very rich.

Amy has moved on in her career, and though she's jealous when she hears that Stuart and Tara live in "an enormous Tudor in Mamaroneck ... on the water ... with a guest house ... and a pool and cabana," she's working on that. As her shrink reminds her: "Focus on you, Amy, on what you want out of life."

Amy's doing pretty well with that until she accidentally runs into Tara on a New York street (accidents are the things that move this book along). Amy can't resist dressing up her current situation by telling Tara she has a fiance, which she doesn't, of course. Tara asks who's the lucky guy?

" `No one you know,' " I said, not bothering to mention that he was no one I knew, either."

This is the sort of smart-alecky humor that appears on every page of Heller's book.

Amy feels a little guilty about the lie, but not as guilty as she will come to feel after another amazing coincidence. She is called in for a very important assignment: handling publicity for a new lifestyle book by "the next Martha Stewart." The book is about how to create a beautiful life with inner peace and appropriately expensive candles. And the author is the beautiful and happily rich Tara Messer.

Let the games begin: Amy has to arrange TV interviews for and listen to the philosophy of her old nemesis, who has been paid a mid-six-figure advance. Worse, Tara won't rest until Amy brings her fiance to her house for dinner.

Naturally, the truth won't do. So Amy rounds up a fake fiance. This one turns out to be a handsome (what else?) if grumpy Famous Writer for whom she pretends an interest in cars, sports and wine. She drags him to Tara's, having first primed Tara and Stuart not to mention the engagement, which they agree to. And that's important, because she hasn't told the Famous Writer about the fake engagement, either.

Of course, outrageous activities ensue. Tara's beautiful life turns out not to be quite as advertised. Stuart makes some disastrous business decisions, then disappears. Tara and Amy unite to drag him back so they can fake the beautiful life long enough for the book's publicity campaign. And the pretend fiance falls for Amy.

OK, who should play them in the movie? Small handsome brunette -- how about Janeane Garofalo? Tall gorgeous blonde. Uma Thurman? Oh, wait, they already made that movie, The Truth about Cats and Dogs. Oh, well, I'm sure the fans will come up with something.


Cosmopolitan Magazine

June, 2004
Red Hot Summer Reads

When PR whiz Amy Sherman runs into Tara Messer, the wench who ran off with her fiance, she puts a happy spin on her life and claims she's getting married. Amy's bogus story bites her in the ass when she's hired to promote Tara's book. Watching her wiggle out of her lie makes for a flat-out funny read.


bookreporter.com

2004
Reviewed by Jocelyn Kelley

What do you do if you find your fiance and your best friend/maid of honor in a "compromising" position just days before your wedding? If you are Amy Sherman, the star of Jane Heller's most recent novel BEST ENEMIES, you throw them both out of your life and vow never to look back. Unfortunately, no matter how hard you try to forget your past, life has a funny way of forcing it back into your present.

Best friends Amy Sherman and Tara Messer are now the worst of enemies after Amy catches her fiance, Stuart Lasher, in bed with Tara. While Amy had always been the thoughtful, hardworking plain Jane, Tara was the beautiful, confident, homecoming queen. Losing her fiance to the one woman whose shadow she had always lived in was devastating to Amy. She decided that focusing on her career in publishing and pushing the betrayal out of her mind would help her move on in life and in love.

However, years later, Amy, now a publicist for the large publishing house Lowery and Trammel, is unexpectedly reunited with Tara when she learns she has to publicize her new book, SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL. The theme of Tara's book is her perfect life with her perfect husband Stuart. Things could not get any worse for Amy until she lies to Tara about having moved on from the heartbreak with Stuart straight into the arms of a loving man who has now become her fiance. Now, Amy not only has to willingly parade Tara around and turn SIMPLY BEAUTIFUL into a bestseller, but she also has to make a fiance appear magically before Tara's perfectly beautiful, flawless face.

Amy tries to turn one of America's most reclusive mystery authors into her stand-in fiance without him knowing of her complicated plan. The twists and turns that Amy must face in trying to keep up the facade are hilarious and unpredictable. Amy is one of the most likable, intelligent and honest characters in women's fiction. The majority of the novel is from Amy's point of view, but three quarters of the way through the book we are introduced to Tara's thoughts and feelings and no longer see her as the villain. We begin to see that no matter how perfect a life looks from the outside, everyone has secrets that they try to keep hidden from others. Tara may be beautiful and live a "simply beautiful" life, but sadness and betrayal lurk beneath her perfect surface.

BEST ENEMIES explores the complex relationship between female friends. Heller allows us to see that there are always two sides of a story and when it comes to matters of the heart, no one is ever completely innocent. In rediscovering their discarded friendship, Tara and Amy learn that the dramas of life affect everyone equally, and it is all about how you handle what is thrown your way that defines your character and turns you into the person you are meant to be. Throw in an unexpected romance, a missing person and some members of the Russian mob, and you have a great novel by a great author. BEST ENEMIES is impossible to put down and is the best addition to your summer reading list.


Kirkus Reviews

January 15, 2004

What if your best friend turned into your worst enemy?

Is it legal to kill someone who has sex with your fiance right before your wedding? Is it a little bit legal? Amy Sherman would like to know. She walked in on Tara Messer, naked and straddling an equally naked Stuart (admittedly an unimpressive sight - hunkalicious he is not) just as Tara shouted, "Take me home!" Four years later, Amy's still sulking, while Tara and Stuart decorate a Mamaroneck mansion with tchotchkes bright and beautiful when not rolling around in the millions he makes running the family chain of gourmet grocery stores. Moving right along, Amy, a publicist for Lowry & Trammel, a New York publishing company, is not exactly thrilled with her new assignment: drumming up interest in Tara's book of self-help advice for miserable women everywhere. Simply Beautiful is a shoo-in for the bestseller lists, even if it's mostly recycled stuff swiped from others - hey, just like the way Tara swiped Stuart, Amy muses. In a fit of pique, Amy makes up an imaginery fiance just so her life won't seem utterly pathetic compared to that of her former friend. But then - yikes! - Tara, disgustingly gracious, invites her and the nonexistent fiance to dinner, so she's going to need a real one. One quick look at the self-appointed office studs and Amy's ready to look elsewhere. How about mystery author Tony Stiles? He's tall, sexy, and breathing - he'll do. Segue to Tara's POV and deep, dark secret: Stuart is a prize jerk and compulsive womanizer who's mixed up with the Russian mob in a caviar-importing scheme. She's far from happy and her life is far from perfect, but she's determined to do something good for Amy. Another trip down the aisle awaits them both, but the roles - and the rules - are about to be reversed.

Funny, clear-eyed look at female friendship from the prolific Heller.


Library Journal

December 3, 2003

Amy Sherman, a 30-year-old publicity director, has always played second fiddle to her best friend from high school, Tara Messer. The blond prom queen who always got what she wanted, Tara stole Amy's fiance, but that was four years ago. Amy is finally getting over it, thanks in part to her expensive therapist. It isn't until Amy runs into Tara on the street that things start to fall apart. When Tara inquires into Amy's love life, Amy lies, telling her that she is getting married in six months. Unfortunately for Amy, Tara has just written a "lifestyle" book that Amy's publishing house has acquired. Since they will be working closely together for the foreseeable future, Amy must come up with a pseudo-fiance to save face. In the end, neither Amy nor Tara is leading the life that she would have the other believe. Although the novel is told mostly from Amy's perspective, Tara gets a few chapters, too. Heller's latest takes an interesting look at what can happen when honesty takes a backseat to appearances and how true friendship can be born of animosity. Recommended.


Publishers Weekly

December 1, 2003

Amy Sherman is pretty; Tara Messer is a beauty. Amy has a nice Manhattan apartment; Tara's suburban Tudor castle boasts an actual turret. Amy was engaged to Stuart Lasher, who took maid of honor Tara to bed and then to the altar. Now Tara has chronicled her perfect lifestyle in a book called Simply Beautiful, about to be published by Lowry and Trammell where her editor plans to make her the next Martha Stewart, without the baggage, and where Amy is publicity director. Can you spell delicious conflict? Heller (Lucky Stars) goes for the laughs and gets them, but there's more here than meets the funny bone. Just when the reader is ready to kill the perfidious Tara (perhaps by beating her to death with accessories and garnishes), Heller switches out of Amy's point of view and into Tara's. It turns out Tara's a real person, too. And she's in trouble. It seems she did Amy a favor by stealing Stuart, who grabs every passing ass and may bring down the family business with a fake caviar scheme. And it isn't Tara who's pregnant with Stuart's baby. Meanwhile, in another switcheroo, Amy's got a great romance budding with Tony Stiles, the gorgeous mystery author. Of course, they're only pretending to pretend to be in love -- Amy to save face (she told Tara she was engaged) and Tony to research relationships -- and things are going swimmingly. Though the happy ending is a sure thing, getting there is fabulous fun. Heller makes a familiar story read as brand new, thanks to a rich humanity abetted by smart dialogue, zippy pacing and all-around craft.

Forecast: With three movie deals last year alone (for Name Dropping, The Secret Ingredient and Lucky Stars), bestseller Heller is big and looks only to get bigger.


Inspiration

It was my editor at St. Martin's, Jennifer Enderlin, who said during one of our brainstorming sessions, "You've covered sisters in Sis Boom Bah and married couples in The Secret Ingredient and mothers and daughters in Lucky Stars. How about writing about best friends this time?" She went on to describe how she had always played the role of second fiddle to her more beautiful and popular best friend when they were growing up, and how that feeling of being "less than" really stays with you, no matter how much you achieve in your adult life. I started thinking about that - about how we revert back to the roles we played in our youth; how we can't help wanting to show people how well we turned out when we go to our high school and college reunions; how the insecurities we carried around as kids seem to rear their heads when we're confronted by people we perceive as "better." And so I came up with Amy Sherman, a publicist in New York City, who is a success by anyone's standards - until she's forced to measure herself against her gorgeous former best friend, Tara Messer. She was betrayed by Tara once, and now all she can think about is payback. But when she falls in love with the very man she's using as the key to her payback, she leaves herself vulnerable to Tara's betrayal yet again. What Best Enemies is about, then, is overcoming the difficulties of the past, and trying to make peace with them. In the end, that's what all my books are about: making peace with the past and accepting people as they are.

Best Enemies